Until Then — Melissa Toppen

If someone had told me four years ago that this is where my life would be, I never would have believed them. A small town girl from Ohio, I lived a relatively normal existence. I had a wonderful mother and a little brother that irritated me to pieces but also held my heart. My future blazed bright.

I had everything I wanted and then in the blink of an eye, I had nothing at all.  Of course, you know all this already. For the longest time I have poured my heart into you. Left every piece of myself on your pages.

It has taken four years to get to the place where my story can be told. The story of a lost, broken girl. One filled with more tragedy and heart break then some people experience in a lifetime. One that would simply be scattered memories if not for you. My life, contained in the pages of a tattered worn journal that was given to me by my mother on my eighteenth birthday. Meant to contain the wonderful memories of college life, of my amazing adventures, of happiness.

Instead, you're filled with loss, with grief, but most importantly with hope. A story of healing. The story of me and how one person's love was able to give me the strength and the courage to fight my way back from the darkest depths of myself and learn that even in the dark, the light still exists. In death, there is a way to live again.